What next? Dynarski will discuss aid simplification at TEDx Indianapolis on October 20. Catch the live stream or join us for our watch party.

Community college awards lead to increased wages for some students

In their working paper Labor Market Returns to Community College Awards: Evidence From Michigan, EPI researchers track credentials, credits, earnings, and employment across nearly a decade for students who enrolled in five community colleges in Michigan in 2003 and 2004. The research points to considerable variation in impact on wages, depending on field and type of credential.

Job market candidates

EPI is privileged to work with and train talented doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows. This year four enter the job market - we wish them much success in securing their next positions and lend our enthusiastic recommendations.

Eric Chyn is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Economics and a predoctoral trainee at the Population Studies Center at the Institute for Social Research. His main research fields are labor and public economics. He has conducted research on topics in demography and industrial organization and worked with Brian Jacob studying the effects of a housing voucher program. His job market paper is "Moved to Opportunity: The Long-Run Effect of Public Housing Demolition on Children."

Monica Hernandez is a doctoral candidate in Economics and Public Policy at the University of Michigan. Her fields of interest include economics of education, development economics, labor economics and early childhood education. Her research examines the role that settings outside of school play on educational inequality gaps, in the context of both developing and developed countries. Her job market paper is entitled "Fueling Violence Instead of Education? The Effect of Oil Price Booms on Educational Attainment."

Max Kapustin, doctoral candidate in economics at the University of Michigan, focuses on the effectiveness of anti-poverty programs, such as Medicaid and housing assistance. His job market paper examines the effect of gaps in children's health insurance on their long-term outcomes.

EPI actively supports public policy internships

As Michigan Education Data Fellows, MPP students Meredith Reid and Austin Slaughter contributed to two separate evaluations of the relationship between participation in state preschool (Great Start Readiness Program) and third grade academic achievement as well as high school student-to-guidance counselor ratios and college enrollment. Project outcomes included a College Enrollment Report Card, featuring two- and four-year college enrollment rates for all Michigan public high schools, and Michigan's first High School Dropout Early Warning System.

As an Education Pioneers Fellow supported financially by EPI and the Ford School, MPP/MA-Economics student Brendan Malone interned in the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology. Brendan helped plan a White House symposium supporting new partnerships in higher education and reimagining quality assurance in non-traditional programs, like MOOCs and coding boot camps.